Oh Microsoft, why do you...(& why can't you, why don't you) - aka; The ongoing struggle to get and/or understand Msft "help".

To start with I want to say that Microsoft is far from the only one that makes using their software harder than it has to be, but they do it *so* well..
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Today I was getting caught up on my email and was reading a SANS newsletter that included an entry:

Title: Microsoft reissues windows patches that previously caused blue screens

Description: Microsoft released updates to patch 2982791 to resolve the
bluescreen issues.  Microsoft strongly suggests all customers uninstall
patch 2982791 and install the updated patch, 2993651.

Reference:  https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms14-045.aspx
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2982791

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- So, I look in my installed updates and I see both. "updated patch, 2993651" is installed, and "patch 2982791" is also.. 

My first question is: Is there a reason that MS automatic updates didn't uninstall "patch 2982791" before installing "updated patch, 2993651"?

Then I read through the MS reference information related to the issue..
Instead of clarification what I find is more confusing (and conflicting) information.

In the "Update FAQ" section it says: "Customers do not need to uninstall the expired 2982791 update before applying the 2993651 update; however, Microsoft strongly recommends it.
Customers who do not remove the expired update will retain a listing for 2982791 under installed updates in Control Panel."

And in another area is the boilerplate: "Most customers have automatic updating enabled and will not need to take any action because this security update will be downloaded and installed automatically."

Tell me how Automatic Updates helped me in this case..

                 

OK, so I am a 'customer who has automatic updating enabled...' and as so; "... will not need to take any action because this security update will be downloaded and installed automatically.", right? (underline added by me)

"[...] will not need to take any action [...]" 

-- OK fine, but what about where you say "Customers do not need to uninstall the expired 2982791 update before applying the 2993651 update; however, Microsoft strongly recommends it."  (underline added by me).

If you 'strongly recommend' it then why didn't you do that as part of your "automatic" updates?
If there was some technical reason that precluded doing that you don't mention it, neither do you say anything about whether or not to uninstall 2982791 if, as in this case, it's still installed after the 2993651 update.

You say "Customers who do not remove the expired update will retain a listing for 2982791 under installed updates in Control Panel.", but nothing is said about any issues that may arise as a result of leaving it.

It just doesn't make sense to me that you would make such a "strong" recommendation yet leave customers like me hanging like this. On the other hand it hardly surprises me, and one more time I'm left cursing Microsoft.